Opera to be sold for $1.2 billion to Chinese Tech Company

Opera Software ASA, the Norwegian company popularly known for its Opera Mini mobile app and its very good data compression technology that helps reduce size and content of a webpage to save mobile data, which in developing countries is a very important feature, has agreed its sale to a group of Chinese technology companies for about 10.5 billion kroner ($1.2 billion) in a deal will give the company additional financing and access to new customers in China.

“Despite claiming 350 million users, the company’s browser has struggled in the oversaturated Western market. China could be a profitable arena for Opera, in part because Google’s Chrome browser does not come preinstalled on Android phones in China like it does elsewhere. In addition, doing business in China without local partners is nigh impossible, but Opera could leverage the networks of Kunlun and Qihoo 360 if the deal goes through.”

China seems to be into everything recently, from paying ridiculous amount for footballers to acquisitions like this, which can all be seen as a good way to improve their crashing economy but knowing the history of China and hacking, can Chinese companies be trusted with such huge amount of user data and information?